Remy’s gaze softened. “Stop, little brother. I know what you want and it’s not revenge. You want her. You’re crazy about her. You think I don’t know how long it’s been since you spent the night with a woman?”
Otis picked up the pace as they neared the place where the bayou and bay merged. “You keep track of me?”
“There are only a couple of places close by where you can get a drink. I know you go to that bar at the edge of town a lot,” Remy admitted. “I asked Cain to keep an eye on you.”
Cain Cunningham was the bartender at The Back Porch, Zep’s bar of choice lately. Mostly because he worked at the other place to get a beer close to town. “It’s good to know I always have eyes on me. A little like a kid, huh?”
“I’m worried about you, and I definitely worry about that bar. Zep, you’re drifting. You don’t want to spend the rest of your life taking shifts here. It’s not what you love. I want you to consider working down at the shop for a while. Willie’s planning on retiring in a few years. You work under him for a while and learn how to run the shop and the marina. How does that sound?”
It sounded awful. He liked working on cars and boats, but only as a hobby. He liked keeping up his truck, but it wasn’t what he wanted to do with his life. And yet his brother would erupt in laughter if he told him what he’d been thinking about doing.
He’d been thinking about going back to school. Try to get his degree so he might have a shot at working with animals. Becoming a park ranger required a surprising amount of school.
He hadn’t cracked a book in forever. Worst of all, he didn’t have the money to afford it.
“I’m working with the parish,” he said quietly. “Armie wants someone to help with animal calls.”
“That’s great, but it’s not a career. Unless he’s going to put you on full time,” Remy prompted.
That wasn’t about to happen, and they hadn’t even talked about pay. He might be volunteering. “Nah. He’ll call me when he needs me.”
Like now. He might get called in to calm down tourists who didn’t realize Otis was far too lazy to eat either them or their small pets. Not unless the pet lay down in front of him and didn’t fight. He’d once watched Otis stare down a ferocious Chihuahua and then run as fast as his four legs would take him.
“That works perfectly with a job at the shop,” Remy pointed out. “If you need to go, you can go. That’s the beauty of working here. In a couple of years, you’ll be your own boss.”
Well, it wasn’t like he was the world’s greatest server. He didn’t have a passion for it or anything. Maybe he should take his brother’s advice and help out. “Sure. Have Willie put me on the schedule for the week after next.”
They watched Otis amble off.
“You don’t have to look like it’s the end of the world. Zep, you have to settle down and find a job. I know how much you’ve helped out at home. Sera was lucky you didn’t want to leave here like most kids do, but she’s fine now. You need to be more like her. You need to settle on something.”
Sera hadn’t settled at all. Sera was living her dream, and it had been handed to her on a silver platter. Not that she hadn’t deserved it, but it had come out of nowhere. She’d inherited the gorgeous mansion of a house she now ran as a bed and breakfast, and she’d married a man who was more than happy to work on it with her. His siblings were building something for their futures.
Zep would be what everyone always thought he would be. He would be the burden. He would be the one who was lucky his brother could give him a job. “Sure. I’ll try to be more like you and Sera.”
“I think Roxie might look at you differently if she thought you were serious. You can’t coast on your looks for the rest of your life.”
“You know I did pretty well in community college.” The words were out of his mouth before he could think about it.
Remy’s brow rose. “You want to go back to school?”
Yes, he did, but he couldn’t figure out how to pay for it at this point. Everything he’d saved before, he’d used to help pay the medical bills for Luc’s birth. Not that he’d ever mentioned that to Remy. “Nah. Wouldn’t know what to do with an education anyway. I’ll work at the shop. But you should know that Roxie and I are going to explore this thing between us. She told me that’s what she wanted.”